Rain damage floods NSW telecoms services - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Rain damage floods NSW telecoms services

By Rachel Lebihan, ZDNet Australia
February 07, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Rain-damage-floods-NSW-telecoms-services/0,130061791,120263345,00.htm

Telstra technicians are fighting the freak weather conditions of the last week that have left almost 100 underground cables waterlogged and up to 10,000 fixed phone line services obliterated across the state as a result of the torrential rain.

Fifty large cables have been damaged in Sydney itself and 40 cable damages reported in greater NSW, leaving up to 10,000 phone lines out of order for Telstra customers, the carrier confirmed Thursday.

Telstra crews from Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne have been shipped in from interstate, workers have been diverted from other areas of the business, and in a -rude shock" office-based team leaders have been kicked back out into the field, in an attempt to bring fixed line communications back to life.

-It's all hands on deck," a spokesperson for the national carrier told ZDNet Australia.

The telecoms giant is having particular problems with services in south Sydney with Chatswood, Pennant Hills, Penrith, Bankstown, and Wollongong - where there are seven cable outages alone - just some of the suburbs most severely affected.

The Coff's Harbour area, where there has been restrictions on water usage of late, was hammered with six inches or rain overnight and close to 300 phone lines have been wiped out on the back of the continuous downpour.

Much of the restoration delay is due to the fact that most of the rain-damaged cables are underground, forcing technicians to pump out water before they attempt to find and fix faults.

"In many cases because of the rain getting into the cables it's damaging lines and there's no service," the spokesperson said. Technicians are also limited in the work they can do because if the network is opened up in the rain other services could be water-damaged.

-We're asking people for a little bit extra patience," the spokesperson said, as there's also the safety of the workers involved to be considered.

Telstra is restoring services as a matter of priority, with hospitals and emergency services top of the list.